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Eglinton-Crosstown Corridor Debate

What do you believe should be done on the Eglinton Corridor?

  • Do Nothing

    Votes: 5 1.3%

  • Build the Eglinton Crosstown LRT as per Transit City

    Votes: 140 36.9%

  • Revive the Eglinton Subway

    Votes: 226 59.6%

  • Other (Explain in post)

    Votes: 8 2.1%
  • Total voters
    379
Second_in_pie said:
Something interesting I saw in plans somewhere is to investigate uses of the Finch Hydro Corridor, and I think that above ground Rapid Transit like the Canada Line could be used very well there, as well as on an extended SRT. I just wonder why they plan on investigating the Hydro Corridor almost right after they build the Finch West LRT, when they could be providing better service at almost the same price on the undeveloped land.
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Ergo the fundemental flaw with the planning behind the Finch West LRT proposal. The LRT shouldn't be looking towards replacing the 36 bus, but rather complimenting its service. The 36/39 can do locally spaced service best, but the LRT unrestricted can offer true rapid transit across the northern limits of the city.

Just looking at a map, one can easily see how many services would be linked. East to west:

Malvern Town Centre, Morningside Heights, Markham Rd, McCowan (Woodside Sq via 129), Midland (possible rail connection), Birchmount (Scarborough Grace via 17), Warden (Bridlewood via 68), Victoria Park, Seneca College (VIVA Green), Old Cummer GO, Bayview Mall, St John's Convalescent, Finch GO/Subway, Bathurst, Dufferin (York U BRT), Finch West Subway, Yorkgate Mall (Jane & Finch), York Finch General Hosp., Finch Weston...

From there onwards we could align it along Finch West towards Humber College or continue along the Hydro Corridor which cuts a diagonal straight across to Dixon Rd/Martin Grove, whereby the line can continue on to terminate at the airport. Either way I'm certain it'd reduce crosstown commuting durations significally whilst accomodating those of whom aren't travelling as far and will desire the more closely-spaced stops along Finch proper.
 
I thought the whole point of the Finch LRT from the city and TTC's point of view, was that it was to be the transit system along this urban avenue that's going to be created as part of Places to Grow and the densification of the city. As such the large apartment buildings, and businesses need to be close to the transit stop.

LRT isn't designed to be the kind of Skytrain-like long-distance transit. I'm not quite sure Metrolinx get's it. Hence the push to connect the Finch West and Sheppard East systems. Which I'm sure the city is just playing along with, because they always intended to also place LRT on Finch East and Don Mills at some point, so they might as well roll over, and get it paid for.

So I could see that ultimately, one day, that there would be both a LRTon Finch, and a rapid transit system in the Hydro ROW. In the same manner that there is both LRT and GO out to Long Branch. No one would suggest that GO service be replaced by LRT ... or the existing LRT be replaced by GO.

Finch LRT is for now ... the hydro ROW is for the future. I can't imagine the Hydro ROW coming to fruition until the densities on Finch increase significantly.
 
^ Exactly. Many misunderstand the purpose of the Eglinton LRT. Its primary function is NOT to be a crosstown route. It is an upgrade to the existing surface routes that face the prospect of being choked off by traffic. The TTC is trying to replace buses here with an easily accessible, relatively inexpensive at-grade service. Were we to resurrect ICTS for the route just for the sole purpose of adding speed (and the choice of tech has no real relevance here since the speed for this line will largely be determined by grade separation and stop spacing) then the TTC would be forced to continue running buses while spending billions on subways. The LRT will be fine for what it has to do: transport riders along Eglinton a little faster, enable a rapid transit connection to the airport (a first for this city), build another cross-town route as a secondary function across mid-town. For the majority of cross-town riders there will still be the existing cross-town route: the Bloor-Danforth subway.
 
I'm thinking we should pick a corridor to actually facilitate fast crosstown travel, meaning stations spaced 2 - 4 km+ apart.
 
Indeed. Stop calling it Go Midtown and start calling it TTC midtown, with service and fares accordingly.
 
afransen said:
Indeed. Stop calling it Go Midtown and start calling it TTC midtown, with service and fares accordingly.
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Or, it could be OneSystem Midtown and we can stop all the fussin' and the feudin'

Does it really matter if it's red or green as long as it costs the same?
 
For the Bloor/Danforth subway, what is the percentage of passengers who ride this system through the downtown core, from east to west or vise-versa? If it is just a small percentage maybe they should consisder dividing the Eglinton route into two seperate routes an eastern portion from Yonge to Kennedy and a western portion from Yonge to the airport or Mississauga. This type of set up might service the majority of riders if that is where most of the ridership is going anyway.
 
GTS said:
For the Bloor/Danforth subway, what is the percentage of passengers who ride this system through the downtown core, from east to west or vise-versa? If it is just a small percentage maybe they should consisder dividing the Eglinton route into two seperate routes an eastern portion from Yonge to Kennedy and a western portion from Yonge to the airport or Mississauga. This type of set up might service the majority of riders if that is where most of the ridership is going anyway.
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Umm, that would just add a useless transfer, kind of like what's going to happen on Sheppard. It's even more egregious since we are building LRT along the entire length of the same corridor. If someone wants to go to Keele from Kennedy why should they have to get off and change at Yonge?
 
afransen said:
I'm thinking we should pick a corridor to actually facilitate fast crosstown travel, meaning stations spaced 2 - 4 km+ apart.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what's needed. Burying Eglinton and spacing stops 800+m along the entire line won't do much. It'll still be about as slow as the Bloor-Danforth line. There is a direct trade-off here: cross-town functionality vs. local service. What most Eglinton riders need is local service. Superseding their needs with a widely spaced subway network would serve neither objective of well. Jack of all, master of none gambit. Instead, we are getting good local service and marginal cross-town functionality which will work for most who will only use that function on a rare occasion.

If we want good cross-town service Afransen is absolutely right. We need GO style service.
 
One area that should be studied is the #'s 34 and 32 bus routes. I don't ride the 32 but I have ridden the 34 quite a bit. Most of the riders get off this bus and head for the subway platform. I haven't noticed many of my fellow riders leave the 34 bus and head for the 32 bus. If the present day existing ridership is using this route to get to downtown, where most of our work lies, it would make sense to split the Eglinton cross town route in two. Sure it would incovenience a small percentage of riders who aren't going downtown but it will service the majority of us riders well.
 
kEiThZ said:
If we want good cross-town service Afransen is absolutely right. We need GO style service.
Click to expand...
This was my largest disappointment with the final Metrolinx RTP. The 401 REX line would have been hugely valuable for cross-region travel. Granted, it would have been hugely expensive... :)
 
GTS said:
One area that should be studied is the #'s 34 and 32 bus routes. I don't ride the 32 but I have ridden the 34 quite a bit. Most of the riders get off this bus and head for the subway platform. I haven't noticed many of my fellow riders leave the 34 bus and head for the 32 bus. If the present day existing ridership is using this route to get to downtown, where most of our work lies, it would make sense to split the Eglinton cross town route in two. Sure it would incovenience a small percentage of riders who aren't going downtown but it will service the majority of us riders well.
Click to expand...

Splitting a route is useful to mitigate the effect of bunching, but bunching is more of a problem on mixed-traffic streetcar routes. On the exclusive-ROW Eglinton line and with a proper line management, bunching should not occur anyway.

Note that the percentage of cross-Yonge trips is likely to grow when the line becomes faster and more reliable (underground LRT versus mixed-traffic buses).
 
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